Pooled cars and vans

John McVeigh can advise employers in the Belfast area on the use of pooled cars and vans. Here is an overview of the main considerations...

Some employers, or groups of employers, find it convenient to have one or more cars or vans that are readily available for business use by a number of employees. The cars or vans are not allocated to any one employee and are only available for genuine business use. Such cars and vans are usually known as pooled cars and vans.

No car or van benefit arises on a pooled car or van providing that, in the relevant tax year, it satisfies all the following conditions:

It was made available to, and actually used by, more than one of those employees;

It was made available, in the case of each of those employees, by reason of the employee's employment;

It was not ordinarily used by one of those employees to the exclusion of the others;

In the case of each of those employees, any private use of it made by the employee was merely incidental to the employee's other use of it in that year. The use of a car or van for what is primarily a business journey, but which includes some limited private use, would satisfy the words merely incidental to; and

It was not normally kept overnight on or in the vicinity of any residential premises where any of the employees were residing, except while being kept overnight on premises occupied by the person making it available to them. HMRC will accept that a car is not normally kept overnight at employees' homes if the total number of nights on which it is taken home by employees, for whatever reason, is less than 60% of the total number of nights in the period under review.

If you are an employer in the Belfast area and would like more information on pooled cars and vans, contact John McVeigh.

John McVeigh & Co is registered to carry out audit work in the UK by the Chartered Accountants Ireland, and details about our audit registration can be viewed at www.auditregister.org.uk, under reference number 223343.